D.A. Pennebaker

D.A. Pennebaker was an American filmmaker.

Pennebaker studied mechanical engineering at Yale and graduated in 1947. He worked as an engineer and served in the Naval Air Corps during World War II, before embarking on a career in film.

Pennebaker is best known for the 1967 documentary Dont Look Back, which chronicled Bob Dylan’s 1965 tour of England. It was deemed culturally significant and selected for preservation in the National Film Registry by the Library of Congress in 1998.

Pennebaker’s other films include documentaries on the Monterey Pop Festival, Little Richard, John Lennon, Jimi Hendrix, Otis Redding, Jerry Lee Lewis, Chuck Berry, Depeche Mode, and the 2000 film Down From the Mountain, about the musicians who performed the songs in the Coen Brothers’ film, O Brother, Where Art Thou?

With his wife Chris Hegedus, Pennebaker was nominated for an Oscar for the 1994 documentary The War Room, about Bill Clinton’s 1992 presidential campaign. Pennebaker received an honorary Oscar in 2013.

He and Hegedus shared an Emmy nomination for Outstanding Directing for a Variety, Music or Comedy Program for the documentary Elaine Stritch at Liberty in 2004.

Pennebaker died August 1, 2019, in Sag Harbor, New York. He was 94.